Kuhou's case files
by wayofthepen
Summary: After being officially volunteered as an expert on all crimes impossible and horrific, detective Kuhou has been saddled with solving yet another messy case. Dragging herself to the Madaraki estate for help in saving both innocents and her own career, she meets someone new - Fran's sister, Veronica. Can this strange girl help solve the case? Will Kuhou's sanity hold out?
1. Chapter 1

It was a clear and sunny day…which didn't make the Madaraki estate any less menacing. If Detective Kuhou had any choice in the matter, she'd stay as far away from that place as possible. Everything she considered 'normal' had gone straight out the window after being introduced to the head of the Madaraki estate, and on the worst of days, stood in front of a mirror desperately trying to convince herself that everything was normal and her body was exactly as she always remembered it.

Everyone else who knew of Fran's reputation were just as determined to avoid coming here. After getting a visit from a neighboring prefecture about a particularly strange and grisly rash of killings, the chief had personally approached Kuhou, praising her past work on such cases and declared that her expertise in such unusual cases was desperately needed. At least he'd vaguely insinuated that a promotion was due for all her hard work before handing her an envelope contained photographs of some of the most horrifying carnage she'd ever seen.

She'd smiled and bowed and thanked him for his praise and confidence in her and silently cursed the fool as he fled back to the safety of his office. Kuhou gathered her things and every officer willing to meet her gaze wore the same expression as she was sent off to 'consult' with the infamous Fran Madaraki.

Better you than me.

* * *

It had taken almost an hour to reach the estate, not counting the time pulled to the side of the road to rest and steel her nerves. The short walk to the door flayed her remaining confidence to shreds, and she shivered as she slowly raised a hand to the bell with the cheery, pink 'Madaraki' label underneath.

Slowly…

Slowly…

"Can I help you?"

The sudden noise made her jump and resulted in an impressive shower of paperwork. The mess was ignored in a vain attempt to compose herself, turning slowly to meet the face she'd seen far too often in her worst nightmares.

It took a few moments to register that the girl standing just a few feet behind her wasn't Fran. She was shorter and had dark hair, but had similar stitch-scar patterns running over what skin could be seen.

"I'm…ahh…detective Rumiko Kuhou. I'm here to speak with Fran…by any chance, are you…?"

"I'm her sister, Veronica Madaraki. Fran's spoken of you before. It's nice to finally meet you."

Veronica extended her hand, and Kuhou felt something strange when she returned the gesture. The girl, Veronica, had almost more scar then skin on her hands, and tiny lumps of calcium deposits under the surface spoke of innumerable broken bones. She had to have received dozens or even hundreds of wounds to bear this kind of damage. The detective took it all in, and only stopped at a tiny, polite 'harrumph' when she absentmindedly tried to pull up the girl's sleeve to see more. Kuhou pulled away, apologizing embarrassedly. Veronica seemed more amused then insulted by her curiosity, thankfully.

"I'm sorry, but Fran is away at a medical conference. She won't be back for at least a week."

"Oh dear, that's…terrible, I suppose."

Veronica took her turn to examine the detective as she bent to gather her things. Fran had made a few offhand remarks regarding the detective as the subject of an experiment or two, and while she didn't have any obvious modifications it was no surprise why she'd visibly relaxed when Veronica had said that Fran wasn't here. Still, she was professional enough to quickly regain her composure and return to the task at hand.

"What did you want to speak to her about?"

"I wanted to consult with her on a case I was assigned, but…"

"I've been involved with criminal cases before…" Technically true, Veronica thought, although she'd been the perpetrator in most of them. "Maybe I can help?"

* * *

A few minutes later, Kuhou was sipping tea in a lovely gazebo on the mansion grounds while Veronica flipped idly through the crime scene photographs. The surrounding were beautiful, if a little surreal, having an inkling of what on behind those walls. The largest disconnect was the short and very polite scarred girl that seemed utterly nonplussed by material that had left hardened investigators shaking in horror.

"Well? What do you think?"

"There's something not quite right here…"

"Ah…"

"Oh, I-I mean from a forensic standpoint. The condition of the scene isn't consistent with the kind of force involved."

"How so?"

Veronica slid a photograph onto the table, and Kuhou set her tea aside with a grimace as she leaned forwards. Veronica mercifully directed her attention to a piece of broken, bloody furniture in the background, away from the pile of gore that had been the photographers' focus.

"Well, according to the M.E., the damage was done by blunt force trauma at a level not humanly possible. But according to the crime scene report, this victim was seated at the time of his attack. Now, any kind of impact capable of doing that much damage to a human body would have easily pulverised your average chair. Instead…"

As much as she would've preferred not to, Kuhou picked up the photo for a closer look. In the foreground, a pulped mass of viscera, barely recognizable as once being a human torso, was spread across the floor. But when she set that aside and forced herself to look closely, the splintered-but-mostly-intact chair stood out among the pattern of damage and carnage.

"It's almost like…the force of the impact didn't transmit from the victim to the chair he was sitting on. How is that possible?"

"It's not. I've seen the kind of damage caused by people and creatures with enhanced strength, applied either precisely or during a blind rampage. I've got suspicions about some of the other crime scenes as well, but I'd need a closer look at the bodies to be sure."

"This is amazing! …I have no idea what it might mean, but still…Yes, I should be able to arrange your clearance. If you're willing to help, of course."

Veronica acknowledged her with a nod and popped another biscuit in her mouth. She had a second photo in one hand and was lifting her cup with the other. Kuhou couldn't fathom how such a young, innocent girl could stomach anything while looking at such horror.

"I suppose it runs in the family…"

"Hmm? What was that?"

"Err…Nothing."


	2. Chapter 2

Veronica was a strange contrast to her sister. Fran was bubbly and outgoing, while her sister was calm and thoughtful. Oh, she could still look at a mangled pile of once-human viscera without any reaction beyond a look of intense concentration, but she used words like 'the victim' rather then the more impersonal 'the subject' and such that Fran was fond of using.

Studying her 'consultant' thankfully kept the majority of the detective's attention away from the piles of unidentifiable gore paraded past by the prefecture's lead coroner. In the time before she'd been introduced to Fran, Kuhou had never seen damage to a human body like this outside of a major vehicular or industrial accident, and it was frightening to think about what kind of person could have caused this kind of damage…

"Detective?"

"Y-yes?" Kuhou realized she had been staring again, and tried to remain nonchalant as the girl turned to look at her.

"This is all wrong…"

"What do you mean?"

"Remember what I said about the chair? This person-" Veronica gestured to a plastic bag with the tip of a spinal column poking out. "-was supposedly picked up by the legs and beaten against a wall until his head came off. If that was true, why aren't any of the joints in his legs dislocated? That one over there had his chest caved in, but the organs should have been pulverized in the process, and they're barely damaged."

"I see…I do see!"

As much she'd rather not, Kuhou began studying the remains of the remains in earnest, picking one of the cadavers at random and flipping through the attached report.

"This victim had his arms and legs torn off…but if something had just grabbed him…" Now that she knew what to look for, the logical part of her mind had an excuse to glide past the gore and focus directly on what was out of place. "Then there would be bruises, or even broken bones, to indicate where the attacker grabbed him. But these marks aren't at all consistent. But then…how was the force applied? It couldn't be…psychic power?"

Veronica held her laugher back for all of three seconds. Kuhou threw her arms up in exasperation, tossing the report away and trying to ignore the little girl leaning on a bag of legs for support as she doubled over in laughter.

"I…I'm sorry…but…that's just ridiculous."

"I don't even know what could count as ridiculous anymore, after meeting Fran!"

* * *

Veronica collapsed for a second round of laughter, and Kuhou left the cold room in a huff.

Veronica still had a twinge of a smile when they sat down for tea. Kuhou had gathered all the information available, and was busy highlighting all the irregularities she could find.

"Alright, Veronica-san. So how do you think the injuries were inflicted?"

"Just Veronica, please. And I'm not sure, exactly. My first guess would be some kind of heavy industrial equipment, custom-made for the purpose."

"But why? To lug a…a trash compacter or something up twenty flights of stairs to crush a man's skull just seems pointless."

"Could it be a serial killer, following some kind of pathological ritual?"

"Beyond the extreme damage done to the victim's remains, they were of varied backgrounds, religions, genders, and three were foreigners. Speaking of the victims…"

Kuhou mumbled something around a biscuit in her teeth as the sorted through a pile of folders at her side. She untied a stack and laid it out, photos of the deceased prominent on each cover.

"…There's a major oceanfront development project going on, and the only common thread between them is that they worked for one of the local construction companies, or for one of the subsidiaries or contractors involved in the construction. That's as far as the local police got before calling me in."

"A construction company? That's a good place to find the tools and materials you'd need to make weapons that inflict wounds like these."

"I had that thought, but the sheer number of people involved in the construction puts our list of suspects in the hundreds, and that's for co-workers to the deceased alone."

Detective Kuhou leaned back in the chair, reaching up to rub her temples.

"I'm starting to think they hit a wall and just called me in to have someone to blame when the investigation failed."

"Maybe, but I think solving this case won't be all that difficult."

"What? Why?"

"In my experience, people who are exposed to crimes committed in some bizarre or seemingly-impossible fashion tend to fixate on the question of 'how' and end up running in circles as a result. Just put that aside for now and focus on the basics. We know there's a connection between the victims. We think that they were killed with custom-made tools. Let's start with the people who had access to the machine shop, and the know-how to create these tools."

"That helps, but not as much when your scenario requires a group to lug this equipment around. Even if there was only a tenuous connection between the murderers, only a single individual would be required to gain access to the resources they'd require. The murderers would still be scattered across the entire workforce."

"They would also have to transport the weapons to the murder scene. And all the victims were killed in their own homes. That's personal knowledge or access to company files, and if they used a company vehicle, that's access to the motor pool as well."

"…It's a nice theory, but there are still too many 'ifs' for my liking. I'm still puzzled as to why a group would feel compelled to commit murders in such a complex, roundabout manner. It would be so much simpler to engineer an accident on the worksite."

"I would guess they're trying to make some kind of statement. Has anything been delivered to the police or media?"

"No, nothing. And the company is working to keep the story out of the news, as expected. If the killers were so bent on making a statement, I would've expected a response from them after realizing news of the murders had been kept quiet."

"Perhaps it's personal, rather than political? A large project like this rarely goes off without some opposition from the locals."

"If something like that had happened, it would have been included in the reports."

"Ah…no offense, detective, but these _are_ Japanese businessmen and politicians you're talking about, right?"

The detective frowned and stood up, collecting the case files with quick, efficient motions and a smile on her face.

"Get your things. We've got some people to talk to."


End file.
